BINGHAMTON, New York — A closely watched House race in upstate New York is something of a rarity these days: a toss-up election where agriculture and climate is playing a role.
The contest in New York’s 19th District — a center for milk and apple production — pits first-year incumbent Republican Marc Molinaro against Josh Riley, a Democratic lawyer and former congressional staffer. Both parties have dumped big money and resources here.
The fight is a rematch of 2022, when Molinaro won by fewer than 5,000 votes, flipping the district and helping Republicans win control of the House.
But things have changed since then.
For one, the district was remade to be more Republican-friendly. And Molinaro is enjoying the benefits of being an incumbent with a key slot on the Agriculture Committee, where he steered conservation-related provisions into a proposed 2024 farm bill.
Those include expanded aid to help communities rebuild after flooding rains and promoting more water- and energy-saving irrigation systems for farms — benefiting National Pipe & Plastics, an Endicott-based company that components for such systems.
Molinaro has also pointed to local clean water projects he secured in a still-pending appropriations bill for agriculture programs for fiscal 2025.
And he opposed deep cuts that fellow Republicans initially proposed for the drinking water state revolving fund and the EPA Superfund program, noting the agency’s role in cleaning up polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the Hudson River — one of the nation’s biggest Superfund sites.
Still, the Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up. And in a poll conducted earlier this month, Riley had a slight edge. In that survey of 461 likely voters by RMG Research, Riley led 42 percent to 39 percent — within the 4 to 6 point margin of error.
Riley has called climate change an “existential threat,” faults Molinaro on the stalled farm bill and says that small towns in the district are well-positioned for renewable energy projects like solar and lithium ion batteries.
In the 19th District, the main agricultural concerns are low milk prices, flooding from increasingly heavy rains and warm late winters that trick apple trees into budding out, only to be clobbered by a late freeze. Political worries revolve around being drowned out by New York City, a couple of hours south.
“It’s where upstate meets downstate, in a lot of ways,” Molinaro said. “It’s a part of the state that knows what it’s like to be overlooked.”
In an interview, Molinaro also defended Republicans’ work on the farm bill, which has languished for nearly a year amid partisan disputes over conservation funding and climate.
Small farms dominate in the 19th District, and both camps are zeroing in on their issues. Riley bashes “Big Ag” monopolies and says he’d improve access to local markets for them.
The Democrat said the farm bill should boost payments to farmers who plant cover crops or use other “sustainable” practices that save carbon and help farms stand up to the changing climate.
Even with the farm bill stuck, Molinaro’s touts working to secure policies that help small dairy farms and fruit and vegetable growers.
Molinaro has also walked a fine line on some hot-button issues. While he embraces the reality of climate change, he says people are free to deny it if they want — so long as Congress helps farmers prepare for the effects.
“You can accept that the climate is changing, or you don’t have to,” Molinaro said. “The reality for [farmers] is the climate is changing, so give them the tools to deal with that.”
He proposed legislation with Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), called the “Enteric Methane Innovation Tools for Lower Emissions and Sustainable Stock (EMIT LESS) Act,” H.R. 8676, which would provide incentives for farmers to use products and practices that reduce methane emissions, especially from dairy cows.
Molinaro made an early name for himself with an impassioned speech behind closed doors in support of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) for House speaker as Republicans were struggling to settle on a replacement for former Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California in the top spot.
‘Unprecedented opportunity’
Riley — who was counsel to former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and for the Senate Judiciary Committee — says his time as a staffer in Washington taught him about working across the aisle.
If elected, he said, he’d look for ways to bring two seemingly divergent interests — manufacturing and reducing climate emissions — together.
Small towns and cities in New York are well-positioned, Riley said, to make products like lithium-ion batteries or solar panels that can help reduce human-caused warming.
“I look at climate change as the existential threat that’s facing our planet all the way down to local communities,” Riley said. “And because it’s such a huge threat, I also see it as an unprecedented opportunity for us to rebuild our economy and the middle class,” he said.
In an interview at a coffee shop in downtown Ithaca, Riley said he’s looking out for people who’ve suffered from the region’s loss of manufacturing jobs while Wall Street traders and executives have flourished.
“Small farmers across Upstate New York are being left out, and the conversation that’s happening in Washington is just building up these big ag monopolies, these massive conglomerates that are just crushing our small farmers and jacking up grocery prices,” Riley said.
Both candidates have raised big sums of money: Riley has amassed $5.2 million, while Molinaro has lagged at $3.6 million.
Still, Molinaro has scored money from Republicans’ leadership political action committees, including Protect the House 2024 and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s leadership PAC.
Molinaro has accepted contributions from PACs tied to agricultural interests such as the Farm Credit Council and the National Rural Water Association, as well as from the PAC for Energy Transfer Partners, an oil and natural gas producer, each among his top 100 contributors.
He also took in $56,560 from PACs and individuals tied to the oil and gas industry and $92,397 from agricultural services and crop production industries, according to OpenSecrets, which compiles Federal Election Commission data.
Labor unions, typically allied with Democrats, are split, and Molinaro’s contributions from organized labor sources outpacing Riley’s.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers endorsed Molinaro, and the Communications Workers of America and other unions endorsed Riley.
Farm concerns
Molinaro has pushed back against criticism that the House version of the farm bill is too partisan, citing 10 provisions he helped write with the support of Democrats. One would expand communities’ ability to rebuild strong flood controls with federal funds.
“I just think it’s important in a divided country, in a bipartisan government, to acknowledge the reality,” Molinaro said during the Agriculture Committee’s farm bill markup in May. “We’ve all got to come together to try to accept a little bit of compromise.”
Riley, too, is trying to tamp down the perception of a hopelessly divided electorate, saying his visits to county fairs and other events don’t reveal such intractability. “My experience on the ground has been the complete opposite,” he said.
Farmers in the area said they’re just looking for someone to stand up for their interests — preferably on the Agriculture Committee.
“Everybody has a farm that they’re connected to,” said Eric Ooms, a dairy farmer in Columbia County and a longtime member of the board of directors at the New York Farm Bureau who has pressed the state’s lawmakers from both parties to get on the Agriculture Committee, which handles many rural issues. “I think it’s important in the context that it’s woven into everything.”
Attacks fly
Both Molinaro, 48, and Riley, 43, are working to cast themselves as average upstate New Yorkers. Indeed, the Molinaro campaign has seized on Riley’s time in Washington. In an interview, Molinaro said there’s something “fraudulent” about Riley’s campaign.
Riley called Molinaro’s criticisms a distraction. “The other side has this obsession around this. He doesn’t want to talk about his record,” Riley said, adding that Molinaro has been a politician since he was 18 years old.
That record, Riley said, includes a 19 percent score from the League of Conservation Voters, which noted the representative’s opposition to requiring major federal contractors to disclose climate emissions. Riley noted his own support from LCV, as well as the Sierra Club and NRDC Action Fund, affiliated with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Riley criticized Molinaro, too, for accepting campaign money from political action committees tied to corporations and said that if elected, he’ll continue to refuse such money.
“I’m never going to take a penny of it,” Riley said.
